1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in the information presenting service which is presented under the network environment such as the Internet and which is distributively transmitted on the basis of the time specification, to the technology by which a client can readily grasp the information distributive transmission time.
2. Description of the Related Art
The distributive transmission of the multimedia data of the large volume has become possible as the preparation of the communication base has been advanced on the Internet as the data communication system based on the TCP/IP. Along with this, the system with which the contents (the program contents) are presented on the date and time which are previously set as in the television broadcasting is in the process of being constructed.
Now, when a user hopes to browse the contents for which the distributive transmission time is set as described above, the reproducing program for which the reproduction of the moving pictures is possible on the browsing program called a browser is previously waited as in the form of the plug-in. Then, at the time when it becomes the time to carry out the distributive transmission, a user specifies the address called a URL on the Internet on the basis of the above-mentioned browser. At the time when the distributive transmission of the contents are started from a server which has been specified on the basis of the address of interest, on the browser on the user side, the above-mentioned reproducing program is activated in correspondence to the data format of the contents so that the viewing of the moving pictures becomes possible on the browser.
However, when receiving the contents for which the distributive transmission time is specified, if the starting time of the distributive transmission of the contents is delayed due to some causes or other on the server side, a user needs to wait for the distributive transmission of the contents with the browser of a terminal unit being activated. For example, the change of the starting time of the outside broadcast for a sport due to the changes in the weather state or the like corresponds to this.
In addition, while there is a method wherein the change of the distributive transmission time is reported to each of users by utilizing the reporting means such as an e-mail at a time point when the change of the distributive transmission time is previously determined, since the reservation of the reception of the contents is carried out in the program on the terminal on the user side in one-sided manner, it is difficult to manage the mail addresses of all of the users on the server side.
Moreover, since the user side has no means for grasping visually for which contents a user makes a reservation for the distributive transmission, a user needs to previously write down the viewing date and time of the contents which have been reserved by himself/herself.
In the light of the foregoing, the present invention was made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems associated with the prior art, and it is therefore a first technical object of the present invention to provide the technology by which when there is the change in the distributive transmission contents which have been reserved and registered on a terminal by a user, the reserved contents of interest are automatically updated to the contents after the change, and the reserved contents can be readily grasped by a user.
On the other hand, in the SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integrated Language) 1.0 of the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) as the standard of the multimedia information on the network, the definition of the synchronous information such as which portion of the picture at what time the multimedia presentation having the voice information, the moving picture information, the text information and the image information combined with one another is displayed is defined.
However, the point that the multimedia information utilizing those SMILs is displayed effectively for a user with a reduced laborious burden on an SMIL manufacturer is not taken into consideration in the prior art so much.
Then, it is a second technical object of the present invention to reduce the burden exerted on a producer side in the broadcasting transmission in the network to carry out the effective information display for users.
According to the present invention, when accessing to the distributive transmission server to acquire the program information, the information relating to the acquisition date and time is recorded, and then when comparing the distributive transmission date and time, two by two, every acquisition date and time with each other to detect that the distributive transmission time of the program contents has been changed, the information relating to the distributive transmission date and time is rewritten on the basis of the changed contents.
In addition, the advertisement contents are received from the advertisement presentation server either before the reception of the program contents or synchronously with the reception thereof to reproduce the advertisement contents.
Now, by the network is meant, for example, the Internet network, and by the program distributive transmission is meant, for example, the distributive transmission of the program which is reproduced by the Real Player or the like manufactured by Real Networks Inc.
When the distributive transmission date and time are changed along with the change of the game schedule of the outside broadcast of the sport, if the contents of the program management server are updated, then whether or not the program information on the program audio-visual terminal side needs to be updated can be simply judged by referring to its acquisition date and time so that the automatic update of the program information becomes possible without waiting for the setting change from a user.
Such a technology can be concretely presented in the form of an add-in program or a helper application to a browser program on the program audio-visual terminal, and the recording media include all of the program storing media such as a CD-ROM, and a floppy disc.